Today’s post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris, who has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos seminars, provides many training materials.

The Sermon Starter Guide, a new Logos 5 template located in the Guides menu, jumpstarts (not replaces) your message preparation. When you generate a report for a biblical theme or text, you’ll notice two important sections: Theme and Thematic Outlines. I wanted to make sure you know the mechanics of these two very helpful sections.

Undergirding all Sermon Starter Guide reports are approximately 230 popular preaching themes, identified by the Content Innovation Team (CIT) at Logos.

When you generate a report for a topic or theme, the Theme section provides a brief description of that specific theme or one closely related to it.

When you generate a report for a passage, the Theme section displays descriptions of all the themes that use your biblical reference as a key supporting passage. For example, if you build a guide for Colossians 3:16, you’ll see both Education and Music presented under the Theme section.

The Thematic Outlines section uses the Dictionary of Bible Themes (DBT) as a source.

When you generate a report for a topic or theme, the Thematic Outlines section presents all the outlines from DBT containing your topic or a similar one as a part of the title of the outline. For example, if you build a report for the theme God:Wrath, you’ll see these titles under Thematic Outlines: Anger of God; Anger of Jesus Christ; Anger, divine; and Provoking God.

When you generate a report for a passage, the Thematic Outlines section presents all the outlines from DBT containing your passage somewhere in the outline. For example, when you create a guide for Deuteronomy 1:42, you’ll see these outlines under Thematic Outlines: Alienation, Defeat, Nature of sin, and Nature of warfare.

I certainly hope these behind-the-scenes explanations are helpful. Also, as former news anchor Dan Rather would say, a tip of the Stetson to the CIT for its hard work in compiling all of this useful data!

Can you imagine polling your congregation and including the results in your presentation—in real time? Soon you’ll be able to do just that using Proclaim church presentation software’s Signals feature; church members will be able to vote right from their mobile devices.

Just post a survey slide, and everyone will get a Survey Signal sent to their Logos or Faithlife Bible app. As they vote, results will appear onscreen. Now’s the perfect time to get your church familiar with Signals—the new Survey Signal feature is coming soon, and you can be one of the first in the world to use this cutting-edge tool. Download Proclaim now.

One of the new resources released with Logos 5 (and available in collections from Bronze up, and also in the Minimal Crossgrade) is the Lexham English Septuagint. And now we’re happy to inform you that an associated resource, the Lexham English Septuagint: Alternate Texts, is ready.

The Lexham English Septuagint (LES) is a new English translation of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures). It uses the Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint as a starting point, creating a literal but readable translation.

Now, one of the things we’ve learned about translations of the Bible over, say, the past 40 years is that, well, there are a lot of translations. We have the KJV, the NASB, the NIV, the NRSV, the LEB, the CEB, and all sorts of other translations in English.

There were also a lot of translations back in the days when the Septuagint originated, and we have knowledge of some of these different translations. One of them, known as the Theodotion edition, evidences itself in a different edition of the book of Daniel. Theodotion’s Daniel, while having much the same content as what is known as the “Old Greek” edition of Daniel, simply says it in different ways. So much so that we know that these aren’t really transmission variations, but translation variations. Sort of like how the NIV and NASB both have different English words for Daniel (in most places) but are translating the same material.

The Lexham English Septuagint: Alternate Texts (LES:AT) resource includes Theodotion’s version of Daniel, as well as the additions to Daniel: Susanna, Bel, and the Dragon (yep, dragon!), the Prayer of Azariah, and the Song of Three Youths. The Prayer of Azariah and Song of Three Youths are traditionally inserted in Daniel 3, making the Septuagint version of Daniel 3 exactly 100 verses long in the LES!

The LES:AT also includes an alternative version of Tobit, which is found in Codex Sinaiticus. Again, it is largely the same story, just a different translation.

The work on these books was not complete when Logos 5 and the LES were initially released. It has since been completed. Folks who have upgraded to Logos 5 packages that include the LES are already licensed for the Additional Texts volume. You should receive it soon, if not already, as an automatic download.

For a limited time, you can still save at least 15% ona base package. With the addition of Lexham English Septuagint: Alternate Texts, this is the ideal time to upgrade to Logos 5.

Join us for the Pastorum Live conference in Chicago April 11–12, 2013.

At Pastorum, Bible scholars and pastors will unpack the mission of the church as displayed in Scripture, starting at the very beginning. You and your peers will overview God’s plan from Genesis to Revelation, and find ways for your local church to carry out the mission of our God and King.

Not only will you revive your theological knowledge—you’ll sharpen it with Drs. Mark Futato, Mike Goheen, John Walton, and others. During each session’s panel discussion, these speakers will share ideas for applying academic subjects in your church. You’ll see how the cultures of the Bible parallel or contrast with today’s environment.

Register by January 31 and pay only $79! The first 300 people to register will receive all Pastorum 2013 video content for free.

Today’s post is built around content from Michael Allen, coordinator of the theological exegesis track and D. James Kennedy Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Knox Theological Seminary.

Knox Theological Seminary is proud to introduce the world’s first Doctor of Ministry track in theological exegesis. In this program, you’ll learn to interpret and explain Scripture in the context of theology, taking what has been mostly an academic conversation and connecting it to the lives and communities of Christians worldwide.

You’ll read each passage in light of the scriptural canon’s broader context, and you’ll see how each piece fits into the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

You’ll use the church’s creeds and confessions (past and present) as prompts to refine your interpretive work, and you’ll learn to see the past as a constant presence for the community of faith.

You’ll understand the Word’s answers to modern questions and struggles.

Classes start this month with Michael Allen’s “Hebrews: Exegesis and Theology.” As you study Hebrews, you’ll learn to read the Old Testament overall by studying how the epistle’s anonymous author exegetes Israel’s Scriptures. You’ll familiarize yourself with both classical and contemporary works, growing in your capacity to recognize wisdom in disparate sources. And you’ll see how this ancient text addresses compelling issues today.

Knox’s theological exegesis track is your chance to master nuanced interpretation and life-changing preaching without giving up your ministry responsibilities. Take the first step toward your DMin—explore the new track at DMin.me/course-tracks/exegesis.

It’s Saturday night, and your preaching pastor or Sunday school teacher is sick / has a family emergency / is on a plane to Hawaii. And now you’re suddenly teaching in the morning. What do you do?

I’m going to show you how to build a memorable, powerful sermon with Logos 5’s new Sermon Starter Guide. Hopefully this will shave hours off your prep time—hours that you can spend with your family or give to other ministries in your church.

Logos automatically recognizes that the core message of this passage is humility. What a terrific place to begin! As soon as I hit enter, Logos 5 populates my list with thematic outlines and topics that I can click on to explore things like humility, encouragement, or pride.

Logos 5′s thematic outlines are particularly time-saving in the sermon-building process. They provide lists of cross-references, set up in bullet-point outlines of particular themes you may want to treat in your sermon. If you’ve found one that you’d like to use as a foundation, export it to your word processor—Word, OpenOffice, etc.—or, if you want to show it off to your church or group, put it straight into a presentation program like Proclaim.

I want to focus on “Christlikeness” as my core message, so I’ll pick that outline. Once I’ve exported it to my word processor, I can delete points or add my own.

My sermon now looks like an outline of Bible verses summarized with headers. While it would be great to simply read the Bible to my audience, I think it might be helpful to look up other quotations, sermons, and stories that relate to becoming like Christ. Further down in the Sermon Starter Guide is a section called “Illustrations,” which has its own section on Christlikeness. I find some quotes I like in Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, namely from Charles Spurgeon, which leads me to Spurgeon’s sermon “Christ’s People—Imitators of Him.”

The Sermon Starter Guide has given me several threads to explore, with dozens of resources I can pull into my sermon to help me explain the passage to my group. Whether I want to make my sermon more conversational for a general audience or more exegetical for an informed audience, I can easily follow these threads deeper and deeper until my sermon has the substance and strong points I want, all guided by a single theme.

Every step of the sermon-building process in Logos 5 has been designed to give you substance and save you time. In less than 20 minutes, you can have an outline supported by a dozen or more Scripture passages and guided by a single theme. You can be well on your way into researching illustrations, stories, and visualizations to make your sermon come alive.

The response to 2012’s Free Book of the Month campaign was overwhelmingly positive. So much so that we’re doing it again! In 2012, we gave away nearly $200 worth of Logos resources, with over 300,000 copies redeemed. If you do the math, that’s over $3 million worth of free books.

You might not write out a list of resolutions, but you probably spend time thinking about changes you’ll make in the new year. For most Christians, these include increased time in God’s Word. Don’t miss the opportunity to make an investment in this year’s Bible study!

For a limited time, you can still get a 15% discount on a Logos 5 base package. The benefits of making Logos 5 part of your Bible-reading regimen for 2013 are numerous. You’ll: